The [Mist Cat]'s innate ability was one of concealment. Bai Qi had experienced it previously when Bai Ze intercepted him without him sensing her until it was late. And even after the transformation, almost a change of race, this ability remained.

And while Bai Rui used it for relevant things, such as hunting, Bai Ze used it for mischief.

The previous night, being spent out both mentally and physically, Bai Qi had chosen to willingly sleep for the first time since his arrival on this plane. Although he teased Bai Rui before, he had no intentions except actually taking one of the pelts as a bed, and he did so. Almost immediately falling asleep, if one could consider the entire hour that the two [White Tiger] beast girls spent questioning him about the bracelets he had gifted them as immediately.

***

Bai Qi slowly emerged from sleep, feeling refreshed as if the rest one was for far longer than just one night. The thought wasn't off from reality, as if one looked at everything that happened, as well what he did, Bai Qi indeed had exceeded any possible limits of a Sage realm cultivator.

Even while asleep, his senses were active. Thus in case of danger, he would awaken instantly, although, with the two 4th Saint Beasts in the same tent, it was something that he could not do at all. The question appeared in his mind, and he took it as an indication to open his eyes.

"Gah!" Even Bai Qi failed to avoid gasping at the first thing he saw. Probably any other cultivator would have even a stronger reaction. After all, an open maw with fangs bigger than his nose was at the least surprising, especially when it was just a couple of inches from the face itself.

*Yawn*

Bai Ze finished yawning, and the fangs hid from sight. She looked at Bai Qi's expression with a hint of amusement as she greeted him and slowly stretched while standing up, "Morrrning!"

"Ahem, morning? And please tell me, why did you decide to wake me in such an interesting manner?" Bai Qi also stood up from the pelt as he asked. He was entirely sure that last night, their respective sleeping spots had been on opposite sides of the tent. Bai Qi recalled.

"I only acted on your words from yesterday." Bai Ze used a serious tone and expression, but her eyes glimmered with laughter.

"And could you please illuminate me about what part of my words implied that I desired to be awakened by your, ahem, cute fangs almost biting half of my face off?" Bai Qi followed the game and asked with absolute seriousness.

"Arr, let me recall." Bai Ze half closed her eyes, and her head slowly shifted from side to side, as if she was forcing herself to remember something.

"Oh yes, I do now!" She exclaimed as her tail stood up, and she suddenly smacked her forehead.

"Good, and?" Bai Qi barely contained himself from laughing at her expressions.

"They went as - We already share a surname, so sharing a tent isn't much, right?" Bai Qi indeed said something like that before. Although more as to tease them than anything else. But she repeated them in all seriousness before adding, "And well, a tent and a pelt are pretty close for me."

"I surrender to your overwhelming wisdom." Bai Qi raised his hands as he said, and then the two of them began laughing.

"Another well-started morning, huh? But my idiot sister, please refrain from using your innate ability to play jokes. Remember that you can not use it for an entire week after." Probably Bai Rui had woken up before, but she chose this moment to open her eyes. And instantly lectured Bai Ze, something Bai Rui did almost as a daily routine. Although for different reasons, each time.

***

"You have several visitors this morning. And that lynx, Zhua, is approaching as well." Bai Rui stated while the three of them ate. Bai Qi did not require food, but somehow, that point did not matter to Bai Rui, who cooked this morning.

Bai Qi inwardly acknowledged before explaining, "Mmm, I asked Xi Ai a couple of days ago to bring everyone who was learning the aura control today. It seems they continued practicing, so I should check on their progress. As for Zhua, well, we have a few days of sparring planned."

"Good, we are planning to go on a small hunt, so at least you will have someone around." Bai Rui had said they intended to leave for a couple of days, but she had not mentioned it was today.

"Today?" Thus, Bai Qi asked in confirmation.

"Yes, we both want to test our new powers." Bai Ze answered in her sister's stead.

"I see. Be careful, and while I am sure about you," Bai Qi nodded at Bai Rui, "Please avoid doing stupid things." He finished as he turned towards Bai Ze.

"Grrr!" Bai Ze growled in response while showing her fangs. Bai Qi inwardly, with a tinge of shame, admitted that he was slightly scared of those fangs.

___________________________________________________________________

Xi Ai, Bowu, and Dian had mastered their control, and even the aura-resistant scales were now easily controlled by them. Even Chi and the other man-tigers showed a lot of progress. Not enough as for Bai Qi to say they had learned everything, but they were close indeed.

Zhua had arrived almost at the same time as the others, and as Bai Qi expected, she grew curious about controlling things with her aura. Even more, after Bai Qi summoned a dozen or so throwing daggers for each of the trainees and helped a couple of them to get accustomed to feeling the edge without looking at it.

"If you want, I can teach you as well." He had offered Zhua, and she immediately agreed.

Retrieving the last remaining [Aura Gathering], the others destroyed during the Swarm incident, he explained its function to Zhua, and she immediately began training with it.

***

When the orb filled up, Bai Qi had finished with the others. So Zhua and he moved to the same spot where they sparred the day before.

"How do you want to do it today?" She asked as she unflung the spear from her back.

"First spear, then other weapons, and then maybe a serious one? Does that seems fine to you?" Bai Qi wanted to train in different ways to get the best result, so he offered something like a course.

"Rrr, agreed!" Heise Zhao was right about her indeed. Zhua probably did not even care about how. Only about the amount of combat and spars she could have. She lightly roared as her ears flickered, and then, without waiting for Bai Qi, she launched forward.

"And..."

*Clash*

"What..."

*Clash*

"If I wasn't..."

*Thump*

"Ready?!" Bai Qi intended to ask in one go, but each of her attacks came just too close. He could only squeeze a single world between each as he blocked them.

"Don't care, and you could defend from something like that even without a weapon." She stopped for a moment to answer and then restarted her relentless attack.

The previous day had allowed Bai Qi to understand that Zhua's manner of fighting did not come from lack of planning. On the contrary, the seemingly disconnected movements and sudden changes were part of something bigger. And even before she made the first movement, Zhua already had an idea of her finishing blow. Granted, she could not be sure about winning in just a single exchange, but that was when her experience came into play.

Thus, today, Bai Qi decided to counter her manner differently by concentrating on his own openings in place of her attacks. And indeed, he managed to foil plan after plan. She quickly changed between them, but knowing where the attack would hit him, Bai Qi had far less trouble defending even against the unexpected angles from where she attacked.

"Good! It seems that I have to get serious!" She roared, and Bai Qi immediately nodded in confirmation that he would do the same.

*Clank*

Bai Qi stooped Zhua's sudden lunge and discarded his spear. Such an action wasn't enough to distract her, but it did give him a small window of time while she remade her strategy and retrieved her arm.

*Swoosh*

He darted forward and, without any indication, summoned the [Gravity Slasher] on what looked like a haphazard arm swing.

*Clash*

But Zhua reacted in time, stopping the blade a couple of inches before it reached her neck with the pole of her spear.

"Rrr, interesting!" She growled as her eyes gleamed.

"Not yet!" Bai Qi answered in the same manner as his free hand darted to the side, and the spear flew into it.

"What?!" Zhua did not expect such a development, and a surprising exclamation escaped her mouth.

*Clash* *Clash* *Slash* *Swoosh* *Clash*

From the paired chakrams, Zhua knew that Bai Qi could dual-wield. Even so, she had never encountered an opponent that could use two different weapons without making any mistake in their almost contrasting styles. And for the first time in a long time, probably since she learned to use the spear, she found herself in a passive position.

*Clash* *Slash* *Swoosh* *Clash* *Clash*

She defended and slowly retreated under a barrage of sweeps, slashes, lunges, pierces, and else. Neither of them was using techniques, skills, or even infusing qi, and even so, she felt not a small amount of danger from every attack.

But any attacks would have a rhythm, and Zhua wasn't inexperienced to not notice Bai Qi's one.

"Got you!" She exclaimed as she switched hands and the butt of her spear flew at Bai Qi's right wrist.

*Thump* *Clang*

Bai Qi avoided the attack itself, but the butt connected with the saber's pommel. But in place of trying to keep the weapon, which would be the normal reaction, and so open himself to an attack as Zhua planned, he allowed the saber to fly off.

"And again, not yet!" The previous day Bai Qi had not committed himself to such a crazed offensive, and so, Zhua did not know that he would only do so if he intended to go all in.

*Swoosh* *Swoosh*

"Damn, now two spears?! You cheating bastard!" Zhua roared as she had to jump back to avoid the two speartips flying from opposite sides.

"Cheating? The ability to summon a different weapon and be able to use it right away, its called skill!" Bai Qi rebuked and followed after her, not allowing her even a moment to prepare a countermeasure.

Almost a quarter of an hour, this strange game of tag continued. As soon as Zhua managed to break his rhythm or counter one of the weapons, he would release it and change to another one. From double-wielding to a doublehanded weapon. And then back to using two weapons.

He used all the medium-quality common-tier weapons he had bought for training when he started his cultivation path one by one. And when they ended, he started using his aura to recall the discarded ones.

"I can also use something else than the spear, damn!" Zhua angrily bellowed, probably more to herself than Bai Qi, as she unleashed her claws and used her tail to control the spear.

*Clash* *Swipe* *Clink* *Clang* *Swoosh* *Swipe* *Clash*

She did not only use the claws on her arms but even the ones on her legs and fought with all five limbs while jumping, spinning, and bouncing around the now still Bai Qi.

"Hahaha." Bai Qi chuckled, enjoying this all-out clash. His aura picked on the three discarded sabers and single sword as he released the ax and spear he held, forming claws with his now bare hands.

The two one-handed sabers, the enormous two-handed one, and the delicate Jian sword began rotating around him as he laughed and then launched against the mouth agape Zhua.

"Cheater! This! This is not a physical spar anymore!" She shrieked while avoiding the crazily flying weapons.

"Let's say that I now have, what, a couple of limbs more than you? But yeah, let's keep to our bodies then." Bai Qi fooled around briefly before dispelling his aura, allowing the weapons to fall on the ground, and jumping forward as he clawed. He did not use any skills, just his own body. Still, he did bring all of his physical strength into bearing, and as Zhua sent her paws to counter, recalling her claws as to avoid injuring him, she found that Bai Qi's strength was almost as high as hers!

She also dropped her spear, and they entangled in a crazy exchange of claws and punches.

Zhua had suspected that the human wasn't inexperienced in bare-hand combat from his claw skill yesterday, but she was greatly surprised that he wasn't worse than a Beastman. And not any Beastman, but a truly experienced one!

***

*Plop* *Plop*

After six hours of combat, both dropped on the ground, exhausted.

"Haa... Haa... Are you even human?" Zhua asked while panting.

"It would be different if we clashed with our cultivations, as you indeed are above my level. But like this? I am fortunate to have a stronger body than most, that's all." Bai Qi did not boast about his strength, simply shrugging it for a blessing or something.

"A stronger soul and a stronger physique. What else, defying a realm?" Zhua asked half-jokingly, but noticing that Bai Qi looked away, she almost groaned, "You can?!"

"I thought you noticed yesterday." Bai Qi shrugged again.

Indeed, in terms of cultivation, they were exactly a realm apart.

But as Bai Qi had said, if they clashed with full strength, cultivation unleashed, and her using her innate abilities, he would indeed lose. But they only sparred, and so, he could match her.

"You want to continue?" Having rested for a few minutes, Zhua asked.

"We can, but first, pass me your spear."

"Catch." Zhua did not ask the reason. And why would she? Bai Qi was the creator of the spear.

Bai Qi unhurriedly examined the spear. Even after the crazed exchange, it showed no signs of damage. Bai Qi thought as he looked at the common-tier weapons, now filled with cracks and dents. He wasn't admiring his work but more confirming that he had not failed. Then, feeling a surge of inspiration, Bai Qi took out the engraving pen, and without noticing anything around, not even Zhua's surprise, he began engraving runes.

***

"Catch." He returned the spear the same way she had passed it to him.

"What did you do?"

"Just added a few runes compatible with a Spirit-tier weapon. Try sending a wisp of your qi into it, and you will understand." Bai Qi wasn't sure why he suddenly felt that he should carve them without even thinking, ignoring that he could damage the spear, but the result was truly worth it.

"For the ancestors!" Zhua's qi allowed her to sense the enormous changes inside the spear, and she did not know how to react. Her eyes darted between the spear and Bai Qi, and then, suddenly, she lunged forward, tackling him to the ground.

"Sorry" A second later, she got off him and said while looking away. She inwardly slapped herself, recalling that she almost licked Bai Qi.

"Quite an unexpected reaction, but don't worry. And I am the one that should apologize. I am unsure myself why I risked engraving without preparation or taking precautions." Bai Qi smiled as he slowly stood up. He had failed to avoid her unexpected lunge just because of one thing. Or better said one sound. A light click followed by the image of a rune in his mind, and he knew that he had just become a Grandmaster of the Path of Runes.

"Even if you broke it, it's your creation." Zhua calmed herself and dismissed Bai Qi's apology a few moments later. And then added with a chuckle, "And I am sure that you would have replaced it with an equal, if not better, spear!"

"Mmm, probably." Bai Qi slightly teased before excusing himself, "I will not be able to continue today. So let's leave the rest for tomorrow."

"Rrr, don't worry." For the first time, Zhua did not care about the sparring. The spear in her hands was calling to her, and she intended to slowly get used to the changes that Bai Qi had just made...